Nasa's New Mega Rocket for Deep Space Will Be Launch Ready by 2018

The SLS is here, ATS! In my efforts to take a break from the Doom and Gloom, I want to bring some good news to your attention. The Space Launch
System or SLS is the largest rocket ever built and will send astronauts farther into Space than ever before.

It's possible that the Space Launch System rocket test flight could launch as early as December 2017, but NASA officials have committed to having the
rocket ready for flight be the end of 2018 to be safe. That extra wiggle room should let the space agency cope with scheduling and funding issues as
they crop up in the future, NASA officials said in a teleconference with reporters.

The SLS will be the largest rocket ever constructed and it is designed to send humans deeper into space than ever before. The huge launcher — which
will stand at 400-feet-tall (122 meters) in its final configuration — could deliver NASA astronauts to an asteroid and even Mars sometime in the
future. [See images of NASA's SLS rocket design]

The best news is that SLS will take humans to Mars where we'll find life! Only that life will be colonists living in the MarsOne colony.....!
Lol!

I thought when you said space launch system that NASA has finally found a way to build and launch rockets from space, hence making efficient use of
fuel. This sounds like just a bigger rocket with bigger payload. Hardly efficient. So much fuel wasted fighting gravity.

originally posted by: f0xbat
I thought when you said space launch system that NASA has finally found a way to build and launch rockets from space, hence making efficient use of
fuel. This sounds like just a bigger rocket with bigger payload. Hardly efficient. So much fuel wasted fighting gravity.

Anything built and launched from space would still require the material getting to space from Earth ...

I thought when i read SLS that NASA has plans to convert the International Space station as a possible launch site. I thought NASA had found a way to
deliver the rocket to the IS. Clearly i had a different idea.

Yup even if you do launch something to mars from space you still have to get the payload to the space based launch system. What ever happens to the
aero spike engine? Is any one still developing that tech?

I thought when i read SLS that NASA has plans to convert the International Space station as a possible launch site. I thought NASA had found a way to
deliver the rocket to the IS. Clearly i had a different idea.

I am just saying logically to get the rocket to the IS it has to be put there from Earth ...

The X-33 project was canned (apparently) because they couldn't make the fuel tanks light enough and strong enough for the task. A bit of a shame
really, because I rather liked that vehicle with its aerospike engines. Wasn't it supposed to be SSTO (single stage to orbit)? Quite some feat if it
could have been achieved.

Yeah the X-33 was cool but it was a test platform. The craft was never designed to actually reach orbit. Just suborbital flights to test the different
systems. The tank your talking about was a composite liquid hydrogen tank and I think the problem was they could't find a material strong/ light
enough to make it viable. Ironically The SLS is using composite liquid cryo tanks. But the areospike is such a cool design. They actually considered
it for the shuttles main engines. It would have been awesome to see it on the SLS. The Bell engine is so 1950's.

Before you get all excited about SLS and Mars, you should read this article.

"...NASA wants everyone to be thinking about Mars. But no actual Mars missions were mentioned. No timeline was offered. No budget to do the whole Mars
thing was available...at no point has NASA identified a single penny that might be used to pay for such missions."

The fact is, only two SLS missions are funded - one manned test and one unmanned.

I'm not terribly excited about Mars, as I know that such a mission is several decades away in the future. I am, however, excited about this rocket
system giving humans the possibility to go beyond the low-earth orbit, and I think NASA are doing a good job.

originally posted by: astroroach
Before you get all excited about SLS and Mars, you should read this article.

"...NASA wants everyone to be thinking about Mars. But no actual Mars missions were mentioned. No timeline was offered. No budget to do the whole Mars
thing was available...at no point has NASA identified a single penny that might be used to pay for such missions."

The fact is, only two SLS missions are funded - one manned test and one unmanned.

True, these are the only two funded missions, but it is not true that they have not mentioned anything about Mars missions in relation to the SLS.

In the similar thread I made a couple of days ago about the SLS, I gave a link to a NASA article in which they mentioned that they are still
"committed" (albeit, that is a vague term) to a manned mars mission by the end of the 2030s. NASA Associate Administrator Robert Lightfoot had this
to say about the SLS and Mars:

Our nation is embarked on an ambitious space exploration program, and we owe it to the American taxpayers to get it right,” said Associate
Administrator Robert Lightfoot, who oversaw the review process. “After rigorous review, we’re committing today to a funding level and readiness
date that will keep us on track to sending humans to Mars in the 2030s – and we’re going to stand behind that commitment.

Granted, and as you pointed out, nothing has been funded other than these two SLS flights. However, I'm just pointing out that it is not completely
accurate to say (as you wrote) [b ]"...But no actual Mars missions were mentioned. No timeline was offered. They did mention that the SLS is one
of the first steps toward a manned Mars Mission, and they offer a very rough timeline. Sure -- without funding, that is simply rhetoric, but at least
NASA seems to have an eye on a Mars mission.

I'm not terribly excited about Mars, as I know that such a mission is several decades away in the future. I am, however, excited about this rocket
system giving humans the possibility to go beyond the low-earth orbit, and I think NASA are doing a good job.

I wouldn't be so sure of that. I bet there will be manned Mars missions within 15 years. Probably not by NASA, due to their slow pace and constantly
changing budget priorities (thanks to new legislators every 2 years). But I bet SpaceX will be able to pull it off. I bet they'll have unmanned
missions by the end of this decade.

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